Storage War

The dust has settled and the First 72 Hours have passed. Follow along as I build a long term plan via Prudent Prepping. 

Yes, I did say this would be my GHB post. As per usual, my life got in the way.

Stuff

Due to circumstances beyond my control, the Purple Pack Lady and I needed to find a place to keep our excess goods in a relative short period of time -- it was less than a week to have everything situated and moved. Since I didn't have extra space, and frankly I've extra totes of my less-accessed stuff piled up in a corner as it is, the decision was made to rent a locker for us to share. This was a very hard decision for me to make; I've watched those shows of people that can't get around their houses due to too much actual junk, and the one where the rent isn't paid on storage lockers and everything goes up for auction*. In both cases, most of the goods are of very little value.

*It seems that in at least one of those shows, lockers were 'staged' to make everything more interesting.

What's Needed

I have to add that I'm not looking at this as a place to keep the majority of my prepping stores, since a disaster could prevent me from reaching the locker. I am however looking at it as a place for my secondary and extra supplies. 

I don't have massive amounts of items to store, and most of what I need to put into the locker are things that I know will be weeded out and sold once a place is found to take everything. The PPL is close to thinking this way also, but not necessarily 100%. She has her valuable items and thinks there may be a need for a locker much longer than I want (or need) one. That's not my call to make, though,  and I'm okay with that. 

Where Is It?

As the Real Estate folks say, "Location, Location, Location." I'm in Northern California and, while the fires are in the news lately, earthquakes are what will really wreck this state. That's why I started the hunt for places easy to get to, with easy access to the locker, secure and with reasonable rates. 

A place was found close to a major freeway and almost on the way home for both of us. It isn't so close that it might be on the "First To Loot List" if things go bad in a hurry, but not so far away that it's a problem if freeways are damaged. The complex is relatively new with paved access roads and an on-site manager for security. With the management there 24/7, access could be a little later in the evening in my opinion, but that's a minor issue. 

The rates are not necessarily the lowest, but for the location and and condition of the site and facilities, the price is in line with other, similar setups.

Moving everything is a chore, since both of us have sedans. Even with me downsizing to mostly 17 gallon totes (for ease of moving things by PPL), I can only get 2 in the back seat of my car at a time. Her car is much newer and my totes "aren't allowed". The majority is now moved, and my final batch of tools and totes will be out of the closet and corners this weekend.

Recap And Takeaway

• Nothing was purchased this week, prepping-wise, but Christmas gifts are going out very soon!
• The Value-to-Cost-of-Storage needs to be calculated carefully. I read all the time on Social Media sites of folks paying hundreds of dollars every month, for years, to store things that they've never looked through since putting it in storage. Don't be Those Folks. I will not be in that position.

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NOTE: All items tested were purchased by me. No products have been loaned in exchange for a favorable review. Any items sent to me for T&E will be listed as such. Suck it Feds.